B'Personal

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” –Angela Schwindt (Home-schooling mom from Oregon, USA)

One morning, last week, I was driving my kids to school. My fourteen year old turned the car radio on and my sixteen year old told him to turn it off as she was trying to focus on some last minute reading for class. I told my son, “Arjun, just enjoy the peace. Do you have to listen to music? Just recite Gayathri mantra in your head a few times, it will calm you and center you and it will be a great start to your day.”

What is the hardest job on this earth? I asked my 9 year old and he said – firefighter. My 12 year old said it was the men in the army on the frontlines bravely fighting battles, my fourteen year old daughter said -President of America. All of them are pretty good answers.

Yes, you guessed it right. That is exactly the age I turned this June. I had been anticipating this birthday with some apprehension. Birthdays come and go and the milestones are always those which end in 0’s. People tell you that 40 is the new 30 or 30 is the new 20. Thankfully, 20 is not the new 10. I am sure nobody wants to hear that at 20!

In today’s robust world, as families we have to relocate or face the prospect of moving.Disruptive as moving can be for parents, the experience can be even more traumatic for kids, who may not be a part of the decision to move and might not understand it.

Growing up in India, I did not know that turning sixteen was a big deal. The only thing I remember about my sixteenth birthday is that it was my first birthday without my loving dad who passed away when I was fifteen. Last December, when my daughter turned sixteen, my first thought was, “Thank you, God, she has a stable, loving and caring dad to celebrate her birthday with and her special day will be much happier than mine”

If you read the title of this blog and you are wondering who the second man in my life is, let your dirty mind not wander anymore, I do not have an illicit paramour! The two men in my life are my husband and my dad. As many of you know, my dad passed away and departed to his heavenly abode in 1987. Yet, he is still present with me, in my thoughts, in my memories, in my actions and in the very core of my being. He is omnipresent and omniscient. Once in a while, I get to hug him in my dreams only to wake up with a terrible longing of wanting to hug him physically in the real world. When I miss him too much, I go and sit by his photograph and it seems like I am in his company which always calms me down and comforts me.

Growing up in India, I never dreamt in a million years that one day I would be living in America and working at the reference desk of a public library. Life unfolds in unexpected ways or maybe it was always destiny’s plan, but here I am, in the southeast, enjoying every minute of helping people find information and also observing the vivid displays of interesting interactions which occur at the library.

While reading a piece by the BBC travel desk titled ’50 reasons to love the world’, a quote by travel contributor, Gavin Haines caught my eye. While citing his reasons forloving the world, he writes, ‘Because sometimes even extraordinary buildings like the Taj Mahal are humbled by the simple beauty of everyday life.’ In many ways the lines captures the ordinary majesty of travel that many travelers miss out. I am reminded of very still afternoon somewhere in North Kerala, where I was on a road trip about two years ago.

I have so many memories of growing up in a small town in India with three sisters and a bunch of cousins. We had impromptu picnics at the Kharkai river near our house, we stayed up all night after exams to celebrate and commemorate with our little parties, we performed plays for the neighbors, and we had weddings for our dolls, long elaborate ceremonies with so much fun, frolic and festivities.